Teens are turning to Snapchat's 'My AI' for mental health support — which doctors warn against

Anyone who uses Snapchat now has free access to My AI, the app’s built-in artificial intelligence chatbot, first released as a paid feature in February. In addition to serving as a chat companion, the bot can also have some practical purposes, such as offering gift-buying advice, planning trips, suggesting recipes and answering trivia questions, according to Snap.However, while it’s not billed as a source of medical advice, some teens have turned to My AI for mental health support — something many medical experts caution against.One My AI user wrote on Reddit, “The responses I received were validating, comforting and offered real advice that changed my perspective in a moment where I was feeling overwhelmed and stressed … It’s no human, but it sure comes pretty close (and in some ways better!)”CHATGPT FOUND TO GIVE BETTER MEDICAL ADVICE THAN REAL DOCTORS IN BLIND STUDY: ‘THIS WILL BE A GAME CHANGER’Others are more skeptical.”The replies from the AI are super nice and friendly, but then you realize it’s not a real person,” one user wrote. “It’s just a program, just lines and lines of code. That makes me feel a little bit sad and kind of invalidates all the nice things it says.”AI
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